The paper to roll cigarettes is traditionally used so that smokers can roll their own cigarettes from bulk pipe tobacco. These sheets of paper are arranged in a package in which said sheets of paper are folded and piled in a zigzag forming wads, in such a way that the successive sheets of paper can be removed, one by one, simply pulling the piece that is sticking out of a slot or opening.
These packages are made up from a sheet of card or something similar, that is thin, die cut and assembled by fitting and overlapping the protruding edges or gluing, and by a relatively strong cardboard card, as reinforcement in order to give mechanical strength to the assembly, located between the wad of paper and the base wall of the package. These packages generally have a small capacity, approximately 50 sheets of paper in each wad, hence they run out quickly. The packages with larger capacity wads of paper, more than 100 sheets, have problems because as the paper is used the wad can move around on the inside of the package, with the disadvantage that the portion of paper that protrudes through the slot can become hidden on the inside, making its difficult to grip and extract.
There are also packets and wrappings that contain two or more wads of paper. These packages are made up of the same type of thin sheet, die cut and assembled by fitting and overlapping the protruding edges or gluing, making a prismatic rectangular package closed on all sides, fitted with slots for the removal of the sheets of paper making up the wad, and a cover to enclose the surface of the stated slots.
The sheet of thin card has a lower wall that is noticeably rectangular, making the base of the package, that is extended laterally in two holding tabs, by its rear end to a rear wall and a closing flap, and by its front end to a front wall and a rectangular upper wall, that has at least two longitudinal slots through which the sheets of paper are extracted from the wads. This upper wall is extended at its rear end to a rear wall and closure flap, fitted between the flaps of the lower wall and said lower wall and, laterally in some lateral walls that are finished off in some tabs that laterally grip the wads of paper and a reinforcing card located between said wads and the base wall of the package. The disadvantage of this type of packaging is that the wads of paper move around on the inside of the packaging, especially if some of the sheets of paper have already been used from said wads, and the part of the paper that protrudes through the slot or opening disappears inside the cavity, making the removal of the next sheet of paper significantly more difficult.
The European patent EP901971 of EFKA-Werke Fritz Kiehn GmbH describes a package for cigarette rolling papers with this general configuration and which has some die cut tabs in the part or upper wall of the thin sheet of card to make a separation between the wads on the inside of the package. These tabs are folded inwards and jointed on both lines of the transversal fold, arranged perpendicularly to the slots, in such a way that said tabs are arranged transversally between the wads of paper.
This solution initially prevents the remaining wad of paper from moving freely when one wad has been used up. However, the poor mechanical features of the short, thin piece of card that makes up each one of the two tabs cause the remaining wad, after the using up of the first, to bend and thus said remaining wad of paper makes inappropriate movements inside of the double cavity and the piece of paper that protrudes through the slot or opening disappears inside of the cavity, and hence once again there is the significant difficulty of extracting the next sheet of paper. This solution also presents another disadvantage from an aesthetic point of view as the openings or die cuts that make the tabs are clearly visible through the paper extraction slots.